3 minute read
Striving for sustainability
from ReSource May 2020
by 3S Media
As the fourth largest metro in South Africa, the City of Ekurhuleni landfills roughly 1.2 million tonnes of waste per annum across its five disposal sites.
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Preservation of airspace remains a huge challenge in Ekurhuleni, and indeed South Africa
kurhuleni’s waste streams are varied, E originating from households, as well as commercial and industrial areas.
Roughly 47% of this waste comprises general domestic waste. This domestic waste is disposed of at the city’s five own landfills and the private Chloorkop Landfill without any form of treatment, except limited rubble crushing and shredding of garden waste. Most of the industrial waste that goes to landfill undergoes some form of sorting to recover recyclables.
Challenges and actions
The City of Ekurhuleni faces numerous challenges when it comes to waste management and service delivery.
The number of households in the city has grown at a faster rate than the national one. Speaking to delegates at a recent IWMSA seminar, on the topic ‘Addressing the landfill airspace crisis in Gauteng’, the City of Ekurhuleni’s Matome Magolela noted that the increasing flow of migrants places a strain on infrastructure and the city’s ability to provide services.
A growing indigent population requires free services and an increasing number of hijacked buildings cannot be billed. For those who are paying, the costing model is based on bin size, comprising a flat monthly fee with no added costs for those who generate additional waste.
The preservation of airspace remains a huge challenge. Compounding this, the city does not own a landfill in the northern service delivery region and is currently buying airspace from the private Chloorkop Landfill site. Illegal dumping is on the rise and the uncontrolled environment for informal waste pickers creates many additional challenges.
To address some of these challenges, the city has identified five areas that require continual improvement: 1. Awareness, education and information dissemination 2. Community participation 3. Cooperation, coordination and partnerships 4. Municipal waste by-laws 5. Human resources. These are backed up by several strategic interventions. The first, according to Magolela, is a feasibility study for the development of alternative waste treatment technologies. Others include the deployment of bulk walk-in containers in informal settlements, the mechanisation of informal waste pickers through tuk tuks, and service point audits for waste management.
Further interventions Magolela named are, among others, promoting education and awareness in all 112 wards through a clean city programme, rubble crushing at the Simmer and Jack Landfill, and the shredding of garden refuse at all sites except Platkop.
Current minimisation and recycling
Magolela was frank about the fact that the national target to divert 25% of recyclables from landfill has not been achieved; however, he believes that the population’s mindset towards recycling and waste minimisation has been changing, albeit at a slow pace. Currently, the metal, glass, paper and plastic industries are driving recycling initiatives in Ekurhuleni, with the participation of informal and small buyback centres at the low end of the value chain. According to Magolela, a lack of municipal incentives to encourage recycling at source adds to the slow uptake of recycling at community level.
The city has established a Waste Minimisation Unit to support community-based recycling cooperatives through infrastructure and upskilling. There are currently five kerbside recycling pilot projects under way in Actonville, Wattville and Thembisa.
The city has also established a landfill gas extraction and utilisation programme at four of its landfill sites – Rooikraal, Rietfontein, Weltevreden, and Simmer & Jack. This reduces harmful greenhouse gas emissions and prevents explosion hazards. At Simmer & Jack, methane gases are used to produce 1 MW of electricity.
The City of Ekurhuleni has also signed 45 independent power producer agreements to generate renewable energy.
